But I promise: It's nothing compared to churning butter. That stuff's for the birds.

Churning butter is just one of the many tasks asked of you at a hearth cooking class at Conner Prairie.

The
class, presented by the Nickel Plate Arts organization, is a fun,
interactive way for participants to experience what it was like to cook a
full chicken dinner without electricity or running water.

Yes, I
said fun. Despite the hard work and my serious concern about the risk of
contracting salmonella, it was a day of teamwork and laughter -- and
the reward of a delicious meal when it was over.

"This food is healthier in many ways than what we
eat today; it doesn't have all the additives," she said when I asked
about the health of cooking with things like butter and cream.

The
main course -- as unbelievable as it sounds -- was chicken cooked
hanging next to the fire, on a string. Having been soaked in water
overnight, the linen string resisted the fire and created a spit by
simply twisting and untwisting.

And we had no need for an oven -- we piled hot coals on Dutch ovens for baking.

Every
five to 10 minutes, whoever was free would turn the chicken, causing
the string to wind up and then release, creating our own little roaster.

Withrow,
who created the menu based on 'receipts' -- known today as recipes --
from cookbooks from the 1700s on, has worked at Conner Prairie for 29
years. She said kids today are fascinated by anything created by hand.

"When
kids come by, asking questions about what I'm cooking, I explain it to
them and say, 'Like your mother does at home.' They say, 'My mom doesn't
cook' -- they've never seen anything like this," she said.